Throughout the season you often see sprinkler heads popping up and down as well as people with hoses applying water on the greens, tees, and fairways. While this is often perceived as us ‘watering’ it is actually a very common and necessary practice called syringing. During syringing a light mist of water is applied to the leaf blades in order to cool them down and supplement oxygen the plant needs in order to survive the heat and stress it undergoes throughout the day. Syringing does not add water to the root zone or soil profile, the mist is quickly taken up by the plant in order to help it survive the stressful periods. Areas that require syringing are those that are wilting. Wilt occurs during high stress periods because of heat, wind, sun, or the combination of all three. Often you can see the wilted areas of turf because the plant turns purple, black, or gray. If these areas are not treated quickly by syringing, turf loss can occur in as little as a couple of hours.
Often after rain events syringing is still needed. This can lead to confusion but is easily explained. Throughout the hotter, more stressful months of the year the root zones of the plant get shorter and shorter. So while rain may have occurred the night before, high skies and wind can easily dry up the top ½ inch to 1 inch of turf where most the roots are located in less than a day. The ground below the root zones is still moist, but since the roots are located above the available moisture, wilt occurs quickly and syringing is needed.
A good example is number 16 fairway about 125 yards from the green. There is a mound in the fairway that transitions into a low spot where you can often see water puddle after a rain event. The mound right next to the low spot dries out quickly and wilts easily as do most high areas throughout the golf course, so you can actually see wilt about ten feet from a puddle. When a situation like this occurs a hose is used to syringe only the stressed area in order to avoid adding water to where it is not needed. However, throughout the year syringing in the fairways is often done with sprinklers because we have 27 acres of fairways to look after with only limited time and personnel. Each sprinkler is on for about one and a half to two minutes which applies approximately 22.5 gallons of water per minute to an area 60 feet in diameter.
Once consistent cooler temperatures arrive, root zones begin to deepen, less and more infrequent water is needed, and healthier and more importantly stronger turf enables syringing practices to be unnecessary.
Ken Welzien
Assistant Superintendent
